Issues Brief

On 25 September 2017, Iraqi Kurdistan will vote on an independence referendum likely to increase tensions across the region. Meanwhile, across the border in northern Syria, the status of the autonomous Kurdish Rojava region is looking...

New laws passed earlier this year by the Cambodian government make it far easier to dissolve political parties should their leaders be convicted of domestic crimes. For critics, however, these measures are merely a way for the government to...

Recent cyberattacks and hacks in America and Ukraine have exposed the vulnerability of some of the world’s most sophisticated cyber-security networks. But what do we know about cyber-terrorism, and how real is the threat to Australia?
The...

From the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and a growing number of bilateral agreements, international trade deals are dominating diplomatic talks in the Asia-Pacific and beyond. Many of these heavily...

The US condemned last month's ballistic missile test by Iran, claiming it breached the 2015 P5+1 nuclear deal and UN security council resolution 2231. In response, Iran denied the agreements had any relevance to the failed test. Looking at the...

With tensions in the East and South China seas dominating security concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, little attention has been paid to the simmering maritime dispute between the tiny Southeast Asian state of Timor-Leste, also known as East...

The EU and Australia reinforced their strong relationship earlier this month with the launch in Brussels of the EU-Australia Leadership Forum. Against the background of the ongoing EU-Australia free trade agreement negotiations and increasing...

Succession plans are a serious political vulnerability for the ageing leaders of Central Asia. With the death of President Islam Karimov announced in Uzbekistan on 2 September, cloak-and-dagger intrigues are now seriously underway in Tashkent....

On 28 June 2016, the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly elected Sweden, Bolivia, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan as two-year, non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. After five rounds of voting, the final spot was a...

On 12 July, an international arbitral tribunal will hand down its findings in a landmark case brought by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea issue. The decision will have far-reaching implications, not only for this...